The DOJ's Civil Rights Division has been taking an active role in challenging anti-gun regimes around the country, including filing a federal lawsuit over the lengthy wait times for concealed carry permits in Los Angeles County. But as a new report from none other than the anti-gun, Bloomberg-funded, and Everytown for Gun Safety-affiliated website The Trace suggests, the DOJ could find an equally easy target in the New York Police Department's Licensing Bureau.
The Trace managed to get ahold of data showing there are currently around 17,000 active NYC carry permits. That's more than four times the number of active carry licenses in 2011, when the New York Times reported on the number of celebrities and high-powered figures who'd received rarely-issued permits under the city's "may issue" regime. It's still far less than 1% of the population of the Big Apple, and my guess is that many residents haven't even bothered to apply because of the excessive fees and draconian restrictions imposed on both applicants and license holders.
Another issue, though, are the lengthy delays some applicants are facing.
NYPD data shows the department has yet to render a decision on thousands of applications, some submitted as far back as the summer of 2024. Asked for comment, a Police Department spokesperson cited factors that were beyond its control, including applicants failing to submit required materials or show up for fingerprinting.
In Los Angeles County in September, the U.S. Justice Department filed a lawsuit against the Sheriff’s Department for issuing gun permits too slowly, alleging it had infringed on residents’ Second Amendment rights “through a deliberate pattern of unconscionable delay.”
Eric Ruben, an associate professor at the Dedman School of Law at Southern Methodist University and an expert in constitutional law, said, “I wouldn’t be surprised to see something similar in New York City unless there’s an explanation for the backlog.”
There's certainly plenty of evidence for the DOJ to consider, given the number of lawsuits that are already challenging the wait times in NYC. In one such case, known as Milani v. NYC, the plaintiffs alleged in their initial complaint back in March that the NYPD Licensing Bureau is routinely ignoring the six-month deadline to act on carry applications established under New York law. The lawsuit lays out several ways the Licensing Bureau is trying to get around that deadline, including slow-walking processing application fees and delaying appointments for applicants to get fingerprinted.
While at times the License Division processes the payments within a matter of days—as the application page advises would be the case, other times they delay in doing so by two, three, or even five or seven, weeks from the date of payment. In many such cases, applicants email the License Division to advise that their banks had processed and issued the payments days or even weeks ago. Despite that, the License Division simply ignores the applicants’ emails, and fails to process the payments on its end for an extended period of time.
... As noted above, State law requires applicants to submit fingerprints as part of the firearms license application process. State law also requires the licensing officer to take and submit applicants’ fingerprints so the State can run a criminal background check and submit the results thereof to the licensing officer.
Scheduling a fingerprinting appointment is a purely administrative task, and it is often done by an “FPT” – a Fingerprint Technician. In numerous instances, fingerprinting appointments are scheduled within a few days or weeks after an application is submitted, and this should be the norm. However, the License Division routinely delays in scheduling fingerprinting appointments by several months.
The lawsuit lays out several examples, including one individual identified as "C.L." who submitted his application on November 29, 2023. The NYPD didn't classify his payment as processed until January 19, 2024, and he didn't receive his fingerprinting appointment email until April 20, 2024; nearly five months after he first submitted his application.
There are hundreds, if not thousands, of other New Yorkers with similar stories. President Trump was one of the rare examples of a New Yorker with a valid carry permit during the bad old "may issue" days, so it would be fitting for the DOJ Civil Rights Division to do its utmost to ensure that average, everyday citizens can exercise their Second Amendment rights just as he did when a private citizen in the Big Apple.
The Civil Rights Division has no shortage of Second Amendment abuses to investigate, but given that New York's discretionary issuance laws were the very statutes that were challenged and struck down in Bruen, I'd say there's good reason for the DOJ to make New York City's abuses a top priority.
